White's XLT E-Series Reviews, Price and Specifications

All-Purpose Land Metal Detector

Retail Price: $899.95

Available Reviews: 5

Avg. Rating (5.0 Stars)

Specifications:

• 5 Turn-on-and-Go! Programs
• 10 Basic Adjustments
• 29 Pro Options Adjustments
• Automatic Ground Balance with AutoTrac
• SignaGraph (What's in the ground is on the screen)
• High definition, megapixel luminescent display, back-lit, adjustable for low light
• Slide-in Nicad Battery System (Up to 15 hrs. of hunting on a single charge)
• Waterproof 9 1/2" search coil

Reviews:

Truly a Wonderful Machine for the Last 20 Years

by Bruce Celico in NEW LONDON CT -

I have owned the XLT for the last 20 years, and it still is a wonderful machine!

Jan 27, 2020

Great...with reservations !

by Blackhat in United Kingdom -

First thing to say is there's no difference between the E series and the original XLT except the decals and a price rise. If you can't afford either, then the original Spectrum will do the same job (in fact a litle better) though the battery system isn't quite as good and there's less programme slots.
First the bad news....it's not a wet beach machine so, if you think you will be beating multifrequency or P.I.'s, forget it. Can be made to work is not the same as working well.
Also it prefers a solid ground matrix like pasture rather than light, dry, fluffy soil.
Another consideration is that it was made to be adjusted. The inbuilt programmes were designed to work almost anywhere so are rather weak. If your not prepared to adjust them, then you are wasting much of the performance. But optimising is not hard, and you can start with just upping the sensitivity and adjusting the tone to suit your hearing.
Biggest drawback is target masking which, as with most concentric coiled machines, means that bad targets will block your hearing good ones. There is an adjustment to help deal with this, but if good/bad targets are close together you really need a 6 inch coil.
Don't assume that ferrous is to the left of centre of the meter and wanted non ferrous to the right. Many good items can fall into the higher range of the ferrous section but they will still sound good so you don't have to miss them.
Don't listen to the "sweep low and slow" suggestion that inexperienced detectorists may give you. This is a four filter machine so you need a fast sweep for best depth and discrimination. If ground conditions are really bad (and concentric coils will suffer more than a DD coiled machine on the same ground), then it's better to sweep higher than normal.
With empty programme slots, you can input your own programmes to suit specific sites and coil types. This is not hard. I just use the inbuilt Relic programme, do my own tweaks, and name and save it i.e. Deep Silver, or High rubbish 6 (if 6" coil to be used).
Build quality is great and there's only a couple of problems that might come up. First, the meter backlight may fail after several years. It's not a bulb so the display unit will have to be replaced, but, unless you want to search at night, the display itself is unaffected, so a fix isn't necessary. Second, if you let the battery pack wack down inside the case, it can bend the two connectors inside the detector. Just bend them back and be more careful in future.
There's a large range of coils from White's and third parties that offer their own benefits. Use quality headphones. I don't like the large 15" coil from White's. Unlike new NEL/SEF designs, it will lose sensitivity to smaller coins and rings (heavy too!).
The XLT is a flagship detector in its time and can be bought for the price of a new low range plastic job but will be better and will grow with you as you get more experienced !

Nov 28, 2012

XLT Owner

by Deerhunterswife in oakhurst, california -

I really like my XLT! I have had alot of fun and luck with it. Don't get to go out much, but when I do, I always find something neat if nothing else!
Hopefully when my kids get a little older,I'll get out more. Best of luck to all fellow hunters!!

Dec 11, 2010

An Excellent Machine

by Coinshooter in San Diego, CA -

This metal detector is worth every penny even though it is hard to figure out all the settings. I usually just turned it on and went. Anything to the right of "0" on the target screen is a "dig", on the left is a "No dig". I found tons of stuff with this excellent detector over the years. Excellent pinpointing!!! Backlit screen for night hunting. User time to get up and running 1+ hrs, with a short bit of instruction. Learning curve to understand it all: I still don't know it all, and I've had mine for 8 yrs. But, if I had to recommend a good high end machine for all around use, this would be it, with one exception: it is not good in the moisture environment. Get it near the water and it goes crazy.

Aug 26, 2009

Reliable Working Horse for Metal Detecting

by Sergei from Upstate NY in Albany, NY USA -

I used White's Spectrum XLT for 7 years. Sometimes I still miss that machine for its durability, versatility, light weight, awesome pin-pointing ability, and excellent Tone ID. Basically, while operating in Tone-ID, I did not have to look at the screen for target information - I could determine the target's metal content and shape by the signal's tone and its sound characteristic respectfully. Spectrum XLT is a perfect machine for those who likes experimenting with different combinations of settings, a wide range of them - that makes this detector a multi-purpose machine! It can produce a variety of remarkable finds while Coin Shooting, Relic Hunting, Cache Hunting, Searching for lewelry at the wet salt beach (Beach Hunting). It's also great for Competition Hunts as the detection depth increases when the speed of the search coil's motion is also increased. For more details and operational tips please read my complete review (copy the link and paste it in your browser window): http://metaldetectingworld.com/whites_xlt.shtml

Nov 17, 2007